Most of the pieces seem to be in place for the joint venture between Singapore Airlines Ltd (SIA) and Tata Sons Ltd to take off in India sometime early in the business year starting on 1 April.
A key decision came this month when SIA chose Airbus SAS’s A320 planes for the full-service airline, which will take up to 20 of the aircraft worth $1.83 billion at list price. The planes will be sourced from leasing companies and not directly from Airbus, Reuters reported on 9 January, citing people it didn’t name.
The partners have already incorporated the joint venture, with an initial investment of $100 million, as Tata SIA Airlines Ltd and have begun recruitment of pilots and other airline personnel after bringing key management and operational personnel on board.
Having already received the go-ahead from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), Tata SIA Airlines has to jump through two remaining regulatory hoops.
It has to secure a no-objection certificate from the ministry of civil aviation (the application is now being scrutinized by the home ministry) and then apply to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for an air operating permit, which would be the greenlight for it to take off.
The launch would mark the realization of an ambition that Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines have together cherished for one-and-a-half decades, only to be thwarted twice.
In 2000, the two firms abandoned a joint attempt to buy a 40% stake in government-run Air India. An earlier attempt by the two companies to start an Indian airline with 40% equity contribution by SIA was also aborted. In both cases, political resistance and corporate rivalries were blamed.Read more..
Source: Automobile News
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